Grass, Roots

I LOVE working with herbs. Being in touch with the actual leaves, roots and seeds of Chinese Herbal Medicine is super satisfying and interesting for me. They make me happy. But when I switched from using concentrated granules and tablet forms of herbal medicine I worried that my clients would not share my enthusiasm. Decocting raw herbs into “teas” does take more time and energy than swallowing a pill, no doubt about it. But what I found when I started using the traditional form of the medicine is that for the vast majority of my clients, they liked it. With many even saying they love it.

I believe that there is a healing aspect of seeing, feeling, touching, tasting the raw herbs. Not in a “woo woo” way (universal term for things that are hokey and out there and unquantifiable!), but in the way of mentally grounding us back to our roots, literally. Of appreciating the connection between us and the rest of nature and then seeing and feeling how those particular bits of nature can nourish and heal us.

There are other benefits too. When using raw herbs, I can identify every ingredient by sight and smell and be able to assess quality and ensure the exact correct dose of each, so I feel much more confident with them than with processed products.

But what about the risk of herbs being contaminated, by pesticides or pollution? I do have concerns over contamination of products from China, which is why I stopped carrying 99% of Chinese-made patent remedies years ago.  When you buy processed products (Eastern and Western) the risks may be higher because YOU can't actually identify what is in the bottle. Fillers and contamination and undisclosed additives (or the opposite, not having the ingredients claimed) can definitely be an issue.

See this example from Harvard Medical School about supplements:

My herbal medicine mentor is a Buddhist, vegetarian PhD and doctor from Montreal who has lived in China for the past 18 years. She has very high standards of health but has not cautioned against the use of non-organic Chinese herbs, based on her experience there. Ideally we could know the growing details for each farm / region, but as the medicinal properties of the herbs are influenced by the growing region they come from, they are sourced from all over China. Also, as a result of this, growing the same herbs in another region or country under different (potentially cleaner) conditions could alter the nature of the herbs and therefore change their effect as well (not to mention the concerns of climate change doing this in future anyway, as regions experience changes in temperature, rainfall, seasonal norms...).  

Additionally, when I sourced potential organic herbs in Canada they were rarely actually in stock, and the cost was 5 to 10 times that which I currently pay. One of the things I love about working with the raw herbs is the accessibility of it as "grass roots" (literally & figuratively!) medicine that can be more affordable than branded, processed medicine. 

The custom herbal formulas I prescribe have herbs for each person's specific, current state of health, taking into account each and every symptom and sign. It is ideally meant to provide results quickly, so that they are taken for a matter of weeks or months typically, not years.  So we must weigh the risk of the potential (but not inevitable) exposure to contaminants (as one would get from imported non-organic produce as well) versus the longer term benefits of healing the body.

As a personal example, my daughter had a food sensitivity despite years of healthy eating and supplements (from birth!). Her egg and oat "allergies" (which were experienced, symptomatic, not just on paper) were resolved within 2 weeks of a Chinese herbal formula, and have not caused a single issue since, in more than 3 years. Compared to avoiding these healthy foods for the rest of her childhood or life, I am extremely confident in taking the herbal approach, even with the unknowns of Chinese soil and air and water quality!

Speaking of that soil and air and water quality makes me think of 2 other aspects of this conversation. One is that I love how using raw herbs minimizes the energy and waste of processing and packaging products. Two is the question - can we really, ethically, complain that our herbs may be contaminated by pollution when we, as consumers, are demanding the products (electronics, plastics, clothing etc) that produce that pollution in China in the first place? If we want to change the contamination we can start with changing our own behaviour.

And finally, being able to decoct a batch of herbs and then compost the waste - sending it out to the earth again to grow our flowers and vegetables and nourish our bodies and spirits anew - is a really beautiful way of experiencing our connection and interdependence with nature. And I love it.

Copyright 2020 - Anni Elliston R.TCMP.